Friday, August 02, 2013

Journey of a Story-1

In 1989, I wrote a short story ‘Rape’. Actually this
was written to read in a workshop arranged by 'Bharat Bhavan', Bhopal. The
condition was, a Hindi version of the story should be read on a seminar and the
participant would discuss on it. So, I wrote the story and Jagadish translated
it into Hindi, which later published in Samakaleen Bharatiya Sahitya, a journal
of Sahitya Akademy.

At Bharat Bhavan workshop, the story was highly
appreciated and one of Marathi participants translated it into Marathi and it
was also published in a Marathi journal. So, before it got published in Odia,
it was already translated into Hindi and Marathi, And when it got published in
Katha, an Odia fiction oriented magazine, it created an unexpected storm. Some
Odia writers and readers blamed me with an allegation to promote obscenity. The
controversy has still been remembered.

This story was translated into English and was
anthologized in Harper Collins Book of Oriya Short Stories. Later it was
translated into Assamese, Telugu and Malayalam. In 2005, when I was in a
literary tour to Bangladesh, ‘Pratham Alo’, an established daily of Bangladesh,
published Bangla translation of that story in its page to introduce and welcome
me to their country.

Other Hindi and Bengali translations of this story by
Dinesh Kumar Mali and Arita Bhoumik Adhikary have been anthologized in my Hindi
and Bengali short stories collection Rape Tatha Anya Kahaniyan and Dukha
Apramita respectively.

After 16 years of debut of this story, a young writer
of Odisha once phoned me in a midnight in drunken state and rebuked me with
vulgar slang and obscene words. He asked me which sexual urge made me to write
this story.

In 2012, it was translated into Spanish and was
anthologized in a short story collection. I am yet to get complimentary copy, but have read its reviews from different international journals.And now, in 2013, I received a complimentary
copy of SHAKTI, a French translation anthology of short stories written by 12
Indian women writers, starting from Ashapurna Devi of Bengali to Urmila Pawar
of Marathi. I feel glad to see that Jean Claude Walter has translated my story
‘Rape’ as ‘Le Viol’ there. The book is edited by N. Kamala and Clarie Barthez
and it has been published by Goyal Publishers and Distributors Pvt Ltd, Delhi.

Journey of a Story-2

1992

I wrote a story in Odia titled 'Dukha Apramita’ which
was published in ‘Jhankar’, a reputed magazine of Odisha.

2006

The story was included in my Odia anthology Dukha
Apramit published by Vidyapuri, Cuttack.

2008

Ipsita Sarangi, a very sensitive poetess of Odia
translated it into English and was anthologized in my second English short
stories collection Waiting for Manna.